Communist Party of Venezuela

The Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV) is a Marxist-Leninist communist political party in Venezuela, founded on 5 March 1931. The party was founded as a clandestine organization during Juan Vicente Gomez's dictatorship, and it was underground until 1941, when it allied with Isaias Medina Angarita's progressive military regime. From 1948 to 1958, it was again outlawed under the conservative military dictatorship of Marcos Perez Jimenez, and it was excluded from the power-sharing government during the restoration of democracy in 1958. In the early 1960s, inspired by the Cuban Revolution, the PCV launched a guerrilla war against the government of Romulo Betancourt, leading to the PCV being outlawed again. Betancourt's reformism won over the majority of the populace, and the PCV failed to acquire the support of the peasants. In the following years, the PCV became a marginal force in Venezuelan politics, but it would become a part of the Great Patriotic Pole alongside the PSUV.